NEN4400, three letters and four numbers that may not immediately mean something to everyone, especially to people outside the Netherlands. Nevertheless, as a consultancy and secondment organisation, we are very happy to have ‘passed’ this standard again with flying colours. Below, we explain why this is so important to us.

There are already 34,000 types of NEN standards – these are agreements in the field of security, and cover all products, services and working methods within the Netherlands and Europe. Whether it is about securing data, working safely in a factory or toy safety – there is a standard for everything.

We as Perfact Group to have to comply with NEN4400-1, which applies to organisations that provide labour. This includes obligations such as declaration and payment of wage tax, turnover tax and social insurance premiums, administration of identity documents, carrying out identity checks and checking whether someone is entitled to work in the Netherlands.

NEN4400-1 and SNA

Not only is it a legal requirement to comply with this standard, clients are also increasingly interested in working together with compliant companies. Certainly in terms of professionalisation, they have a closer look at their suppliers and whether they have all their affairs in order. In the case of Perfact Group this is quite logical – when you have a consultant or employee working for you for a long time, you need to be sure that everything is in order for both the organisation and the employee.

To reinforce this, we ensure that we also comply with the SNA quality mark (Stichting Normering Arbeid). This quality mark was specially developed to limit the risks of hirers of labour and clients of work. They set a number of additional requirements, including:

• Declaration and remittance of payroll taxes and turnover tax;
• Possible conflict of wage payment with the Minimum Wage Act;
• Control of personnel files.
• The identity of the organisation;
• Preventing risks by hiring, on-lending or outsourcing work.

Audit

Bureau Cicero performed a NEN audit on us to check whether we comply with everything. An intensive job, but one with a happy ending. Monique Deenen, our colleague from Business Support was the contact person and ensured, among other things, that the audit ran smoothly. “With the NEN4400, the focus is not so much on what we are doing wrong, but on what can be done better,” says Monique. “So an audit like this is extremely valuable for us and helps us keep the administration even better under control.”

Besides complying with the standards, we also receive a VCU certificate. With a VCU certificate, we demonstrate as an agency that we take the safety of our workforce seriously. What is important for VCU certification is that an organisation has its financial administration in order – and of course you can demonstrate this again with NEN certification.

Check, check, double-check – it takes some effort to tick off all the requirements and checklists, but it’s definitely worth our while. This way, we know for sure that everything is in order, for our colleagues but also for our clients. So we can focus again on what we do best: making a difference together.